Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-16

Margaret Ernst's slayer Makes a State-
 ment I'm Which He duplicates a
 Third Party a New Haven Young
 Man-He no Longer Thinks 1ncar-
 ceration a Joke.
 States prison for life.
 How few there are who have any idea as to
 the meaning of those words. It is only he who
 is entombed behind massive masonry, who
 lives on from day to day in the vain hope ot
 escape, who can only dream of the bright
 sunshine beyond his prison walls and awake
 to find himself living in a tomb. He only
 can tell of the terrible fate which awaits
 those sentenced to imprisonment for life. By Monday next, provided there is no in- reference with the laws decrees, Henry 5. Chamberlain, the self confessed and con victed murderer of aged Margaret Ernst, will have been sentenced by Judge Stoddard of the Superior court Incarceration for the rest of his natural life will be the penalty for 1 his surrendering himself to the blind and un-
 reasoning power of drink.
 1 Although he says he is perfectly resigned | to his fate his face bellies him. The nervous | twitching of his eyes lashes and the half scared look in his eye shows that he is be- 1 ginning to ponder on the awful doom that awaits him. He is a very young man for | murderer, scarcely twenty years. Better hang | ing he exclaims quite often. Young Cham-
 berlain is an example to the youth of any ! city. Reared by foster mother who loved him as her own son, he became intimate with bad companions and then took to drink and l from drink to murder and rob.
 ! Chamberlain had requested COURIER re- porter, who had paid him visit few days ! ago, to call on him Friday.
 Shortly after o'clock yesterday afternoon the reporter was in the jail office. The ever accommodating officer in charge, Captain Beardsley, escorted him to Chamberlain's cell, Mo- 4, 'bound over tier"
 ''The poor fellow is beginning to feel his situation, ," said the officer. '1 pity him more than any man I ever had out here. He IS so young and he can scarcely realize the awful fate awaiting him. The cells in Wethersheld are not like the one he is occupying now. He ! is well behaved prisoner and is not natural \ lv bad man. He was easily led astray." He conversed pleasantly with the reporter. s'I have written ont a statement which hope you will see fit to print in the COURIER, :" he said.
 Chamberlain handed it out through the iron bars There were ten closely written pages of legal cap. The chirography was not of the best and it was quite ungrammati- cal Following is part of it:
 'sI should think they might have spoken respectfully and used a little decency in re. gard to my mother, Mrs. Chamberlain It would have been just as easy for them to say Mrs. Chamberlain as old Mrs. Chamberlain,
 as they have called her right along.
 'I want the public to understand that my
 mother is a lady, no matter what her son
 has done.
 'It was not through any Of her doings or sayings that am caged up here at present. If I had taken her advice I never would be in jail. I was too easily led astray and too easy going for my own good. had as good home as any poor boy ever had or will have. My mother treated me as though l was her real son, and in fact I always thought was until I was arrested. II don't want to go to Wether .feld with out protesting against some of the false stories about me. I never went into sec- ond-hand clothing store and refused to pay for suit. I never bought a secondhand suit.
 ''They say when I was arrested fought ! and drew my pistol and that the detectives ! knocked me down and put the handeuffs on me. They say we intended to kill anyone we met after leaving Mrs. Ernst's. Both 1 stories are lies and were made up by the | New York detectives to get some praise. l was arrested in Bowery store and went \ l didn't resist at all. Even if had wanted to I I couldn't, for there were three men to one. l t:I never asked Taylor to do this job with 1 me. It was Heffron and who were to have done the job, but Taylor came to ne one I night. He said he was dead broke and want l ed to go with us We didn't have money l enough to take the three of us to New Haven. I never led Taylor on as is claimed. never spoke to him about the job in the first place. | It was the sWhyo' fellow Heffron, alias Ellis, alias Douglass, who told him. If l had been sober I never would have thought of com | mitting robbery. met in New Haven a | crook named William Young, alias Ray l mond This was after had come up from | New York sick We were both broke and my mother had given me all the money she | had. He told me that he knew Mrs Ernst that lived on Spruce street and had | forty or fifty thousand dollars. He said she | kept it all in the house and that she had | not been away from the house in | twenty years. He said woman had | told him about it. He would l have done the job himself, but he was too we'll known in the neighborhood, he having taken women to her house quite often. l I refused to have anything to do with it. He had told me about what time the officers went in to report and it was he who first put I robbery into my head. When was drunk ! and out of money in New York l thought of what he had told me and led on by Het- l iron decided to rob- Young told me the
 job could be done in half an hour. l had visited the house with him while in New Haven and knew how it lay. Young told | me if I ever did the job he would expect a third of the money and named place where I he would meet me- He claimed it as his | lay If he had come to me after I was l arrested I would never have given him away. He might have brought me something to
 read to pass away the time. but I will take what I've got ! like a man. If it hadn't been
 for him I would never have robbed Mrs. Ernst. don't accuse myself of murdering her, and I didn't. It was the disease she had.
 'tDrink has made me what am.
 ''If I had kept from drink I would never
 have been called murderer or thief. If I
 had taken my mothers advice would never
 have drank drop. I never drank very
 heavily, but when I got little in it almost
 set me crazy. Tell all young men to let
 drink alone because you do not know what
 you are doing when you are under it's infiu-
 ence. It has been curse to me and has
 brought me where am. Little did I dream
 a year ago that would now be in prison.
 tell you that man who drinks does not
 know where he is going to wind up. Let it
 alone"